Frank Wilczek

“Expanding the Doors of Perception: The Physics of Color Perception”

Tuesday, April 15, 4:00 pm
Lowder Building 131A

Jointly Sponsored with Auburn's Physics Department

The thing to understand about Frank Wilczek is that he finds both joy and wonder in his research. It is most fortunate for us that he does, for his area of research is particle physics, the study of the fundamental constituents of the universe. Professor Wilczek is eager to make particle physics accessible to ordinary people and help them understand its importance. He shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the idea Asymptotic Freedom, the notion that the behavior of subatomic particles extremely close to one another is the opposite of their behavior at great distance.

His recent book, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, aims to make this idea and other central ideas of contemporary physics clear to everyone. One distinguished commentator wrote, “He writes as he thinks, with a lightness of touch that can come only to one who is absolute master of his subject.”

He is currently Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at M.I.T. His tally of awards is nearly as long as his roster of publications. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has been a MacArthur Fellow and Sloan Foundation Fellow, as well as recipient of UNESCO’s Paul Dirac Medal and a host of others.